Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Dane-Geld

From a PJ Media article,

“Garcetti discussed his “defunding the police” plan of reducing the police funding by $150 million and moving another $100 million from other city budgetary priorities to hand over to the mobs for special placative programs.”

Because paying “protection money” to thugs works so very well, as Kipling noted:

Dane-Geld
A.D. 980-1016

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
“We invaded you last night–we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: —
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —

“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!”

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Marketing Fluff = BS

Saw some bedding (sheets and pillow cases) touted as “literally the stuff dreams are made of.” Queen size: $240/ Ah! But they are made from organic cotton!

*pfui* I’m throwing the BS flag on the whole concept. ALL cotton is made up of hydrocarbon chains and is therefore organic. A premium price for BS? Nah. I’ll pass.

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Ugly Words

A thought for today on ugly words, from Henry Watson Fowler:

Whether we are to say forecast or forecasted in the past tense & participle depends on whether we regard the verb or the noun as the original from which the other is formed; … The verb is in fact recorded 150 years earlier than the noun, & we may therefore thankfully rid ourselves of the ugly forecasted; it may be hoped that we should do so even if history were against us, but this time it is kind. [Fowler, 1926]

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Well, Finally!

The shipping problem? The “500-pound gorilla” (more like 5,000-pound King Kong) solved it by pressuring the original shipper to “git ‘er done.”

Yesterday, 120-lb package was 90 miles west of us. By this AM it was 190 miles northeast of us and traveling our way by 0700 (I know this ‘cos the trucker called us to let us know his itinerary and expected delivery time). Arrived on time. Finally.

New couch. Looks nice. Comfy, especially with all the DIY pillows I added. Yeh, “spent” almost $2/pillow. Used materials sourced from my fav “fell off the back of a truck store.”

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Guy’s got Pinoochis*

Overheard recently: “Don’t you hate it when you see an old person, then realize you went to high school with them?” Yeh, well, that only happens to me when I see my sibs. . . and they wonder why they don’t see me often at all, at all. *heh*

*”pinoochis” is a neologism I sometimes use instead of “brains.”

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Social Contract

Exploring the idea that a contract that is effected by deceit and coercion is invalid,

Do We Really Consent to Be Governed?

For the record, I can state in complete candor that I do not approve of the manner in which I am being treated by the liars, thieves, and murderers who style themselves the Government of the United States of America or by those who constitute the tyrannical pyramid of state, local, and hybrid governments with which this country is massively infested. My sincere wish is that all of these individuals would, for once in their lives, do the honorable thing. In this regard, I suggest that they resign their positions immediately and seek honest employment.

Join the club, bub. Romans 13 outlines the ideal civil government: protects citizens’ rights (such as life, property, etc.); punishes those who violate those rights. If our government(s) were truly legitimate in function, perhaps as many as 10% of its employees would be in the process of arresting, charging, prosecuting, and imprisoning the other 90%. (I say “as many as” hopefully, not reasonably. *sigh*)

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When a Dunning-Krugerand* Writes Self-Pub Books

Read a *sigh* “cute” series of novellas (touted as novels but roughly 1/3 the length, or less, of anything I’d class as a novel). Irritating. OK, so they were REALLY fast reads. Clean plot/characters (for the most part–a “super upright, never tell a lie” character? Liar. And the character still viewed himself as honest *sigh*) But, one persistent problem: the writer(s) just did not do their homework. Bits here and there just would NOT work or were utterly and even sometimes laughably impossible, but were essential to the plot. “Dunning-Krugerand” moments* destroying suspension of disbelief, and suspension of disbelief was hard enough to begin with given the premise. Bits like that piled up and kept on piling up until the last “installment” was just a slog, finished just so I could notch up a bit of “reader masochism.”

*”Dunning-Krugerand” is a neologism coined–as far as I know–by Larry Correia to refer to those stuck somewhere on the lefthand side of the Dunning-Kruger Curve, having an unrealistic view of their knowledge base and competence, thinking of themselves far more highly than they ought. Usually, it is simply used to refer to those people, but here I have it to characterize the examples of the writers thinking they were using the right word/term but using exactly the wrong word/term, or describing a physical action or some equipment in such a way that they demonstrated they had no earthly idea how such worked in the real world, getting it so glaringly wrong as to completely destroy suspension of unbelief.

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Oh, Well, I guess I Can “Burn” a Day. . .

Different item from the one Fedex is poohing the scrooch on. . . but REALLY lookin’ forward to driving a couple hundred miles (one way) to pick up a chair ‘rona-over-reaction has made undeliverable. *heh* Not. BUT, driving to pick it up will save about $200 off buying the same exact chair elsewhere and having it delivered for “free.” Oh, maybe only about $170 less after gas (gotta love fuel efficient cars, eh? 😉 ).

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Do NOT Make YOUR Problem MY Problem

You won’t like it if you do.

Well, the rumbles I’ve been hearing about Fedex deliveries in recent months going from average/poor in service to execrable have another data point. Call from Fedex Freight. Nope, the package they accepted to deliver to me? Nah. They can’t get here from there, not with the truck they want to “deliver” it with. . . And it is too big for our vehicles. Oh, and it’s a gig they accepted from another freight company–Pilot Freight–that accepted the package for delivery, then decided to fob it off on Fedex. Now, the original company says it’ll “try to work something out.” There is no try. There is only do and do not. Neither one did their due diligence, and neither one wants to be troubled to deliver the package they accepted to deliver.

Ain’t it grand when folks make a commitment w/o doing their homework and with little apparent intent to fulfill it? *shrugs* Next up: the company that sold me the product. We’ll see if it intends to earn its money. (Just to be clear: I kinda enjoy holding folks’ feet to the fire when they try to back out of fulfilling a commitment. Makes me smile. 🙂 “YOU took the gig. Don’t make it MY problem that you don’t want to do your job.” *heh*)

Progress. Called the retailer. The retailer’s the 500 pound gorilla in this. Retailer kept me on while conferencing in the company that accepted the original contract to deliver. Ruh-roh. Response: “I’ll fix this,” and a promise to call me back with a delivery date/time. We’ll see, , ,

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Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Lone star tick, yesterday. I’m eatin’ all the red meat I can while I can. *heh* (Small, small, small chance of developing alpha-gal meat allergy, but I’m gonna test my system to “destruction” just in case. 🙂 ).